Fan-heater appliance with adjustable fan speed

Abstract

A fan-heater appliance, e.g., hair drier, has a tapping arrangement for providing a variable supply to a fan motor to regulate the speed thereof. The tapping arrangement comprises a current collector which is slidable over a row of heads of tubular rivets which are attached to the coil tips of a linearly coiled resistance heating wire arranged transversely of the air flow path through the appliance. The current collector is operated by a crank arrangement including a knurled disc operator.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A fan-heater appliance, comprising a housing, a low voltage fan motor for producing a flow of air within said housing, a resistance heating wire coiled linearly to form a series of tips with at least one row of coils transverse to the direction of said air flow, and means for securing said at least one row of coils within said housing, a plurality of the tips of the coils being each placed within a respective headed tubular rivet with the heads of all the tubular rivets being arranged in a continuous path, and a current collector connected in an electrical circuit with said fan motor, said current collector being moveable along said path in electrically conductive contact with selected ones of the heads of the tubular rivets and means for selectively displacing said current collector over said tubular rivets so as to provide an almost stepless adjustment of said fan motor speed over a relatively large rotational speed range. 
     
     
       2. A fan-heater appliance according to claim 1, including a supporting plate mounted in said housing for guiding the current collector, the tubular rivets extending through this supporting plate. 
     
     
       3. A fan-heater appliance according to claim 1, wherein said means for displacing said current collector includes a crank arrangement mounted to said housing for operating the current collector, the crank arrangement including a knurled disc for manipulation of the crank arrangement. 
     
     
       4. A fan-heater appliance according to claim 3, wherein the knurled disc extends at least partly out to the exterior through said housing of the appliance. 
     
     
       5. A fan-heater appliance according to claim 1, wherein said means for displacing said current collector includes a controller on said housing for operating the current collector.